Control room design for 24/7 mission-critical operations.

Every Fountainhead control room is designed to ISO 11064 parts 1 through 7, which cover the design process, control suite, room layout, workstations, displays and controls, environment, and evaluation. We also apply ISO 9241 for workstation and display ergonomics and ISO 7730 for thermal comfort. When a project calls for alarm management, HMI, or fatigue risk work, our Mission-Critical Performance Group applies ANSI/ISA-18.2, ANSI/ISA-101, ANSI/API RP 755, and related standards.

The Mission-Critical Performance Group (MCPG) is Fountainhead's human systems engineering practice, led by David Lee, CEng, FIChemE. MCPG helps operations teams improve operator performance through work team design, fatigue risk management, HMI, alarm management, and ISO 11064 conceptual design. Clients can start with a workshop, a gap analysis, or standards development, and Fountainhead carries the results into the built room.

Every Fountainhead room is designed to ISO 11064 without MCPG. MCPG is the right addition when operator performance depends on more than the room: alarm floods, 12-hour rotating shifts, regulated control room management, team restructuring, or an HMI modernization. Bring MCPG in as early as possible. Decisions about staffing, alarm philosophy, and how screens are organized shape the room, and they are far cheaper to settle before construction than after. MCPG is a good fit for new control rooms, major renovations, consolidations, and technology upgrades where operator performance affects safety or service.

An ergonomic control room keeps every display inside comfortable viewing distances and angles, puts frequently used controls within easy reach, lets operators alternate between sitting and standing, and controls glare and noise. These are the factors defined by ISO 11064, and they are what keep operators alert and accurate through a 12-hour shift.

ISO 11064 is the international standard for the ergonomic design of control centers. It sets requirements for layout, workstation dimensions, displays, environment, and the design process itself. Designing to the standard reduces operator fatigue and error, and it gives agencies and utilities a defensible basis for their design decisions.

Start with the people: how many operators per shift, what each one monitors, and how supervisors interact with the floor. From there, plan sightlines to the video wall, size the consoles for the equipment load, plan for shift handoffs and traffic flow, and specify lighting and acoustics for round-the-clock use. Fountainhead runs this as a defined process from needs analysis through 3D renderings and turnkey installation.

Design typically runs from a few weeks for a single-room console layout to several months for a new facility with integrated AV. Fabrication and installation follow. Timelines depend on scope, technology integration, and construction schedules, so contact us for a project-specific estimate.

Yes. Fountainhead is headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, and has designed and built more than 200 control rooms and command centers across the United States, including projects in Tennessee, Texas, Maryland, Washington, and Georgia.

Yes. Many of our projects are modernizations of rooms that are still in service. We phase the work so operations continue during the renovation, and we reuse existing infrastructure where it makes sense.

Yes. Fountainhead designs the room, manufactures the control room consoles that go in it, including sit-stand, fixed-height, and dispatch models, and integrates the AV and technology. One partner is responsible for the design, the furniture, the AV integration, and the installation.